(16-18 May 2019) Spirituality in Society and the Professions – International Conference and Launch of Books & CD

The Annual Conference of the European Institute for Spirituality in Economics and Society (SPES) took place on 16-18 May 2019. The venue was the main auditorium, Waterford Institute of Technology, (WIT), Waterford, Ireland. SpIRE collaborated with SPES, which is based in Budapest and Leuven, and WIT, which hosted the conference. The subject of the conference was Spirituality in Society and the Professions. Click on the link below:

SPES SpIRE conf in WIT

CDs/USBs of recorded presentations are available from Paul at  eist@eircom.net / 087 2789390.

Prof Celeste Snowber gave the following feedback on the conference:

“Dear Michael and Bernadette,

As I am back in Canada I am continuing to reflect on how special my time in Ireland was at the conference.  I wanted to thank you for opening up such a generative space for scholars, educators and seekers from all over the world to convene, dialogue and be inspired by one another.  I am in gratitude for all your organizing, hospitality and bringing vision together.  I know what a huge outpouring of energy this is. So a BIG THANKS!!

I also wanted to send a note that the day on the Waterford Camino was absolutely wonderful and a precious compliment to everything else that had transpired.  We all found ourselves enriched on the land and Phil was a fabulous guide.  It couldn’t have been more perfect”.  

During the conference the Routledge Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions was launched. Laszlo Zsolnai and Bernadette Flanagan edited the handbook and it has sixty-eight contributors and 51 chapters. Their book will make a very significant contribution to applied spirituality as a field of study. Prof Zsolnai is Director, Business Ethics Center, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary and President, European SPES Institute, Leuven, Belgium. See https://www.jesuit.ie/news/a-book-to-relish/

Prof Flanagan is Chair of the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE), a member of the SPES Advisory Board, and a member of the MA in Applied Spirituality (WIT) leadership team. See her profile in About Us on this website. The MA, of which the Director of SpIRE, Dr Michael O’Sullivan, SJ, is the programme leader, is hosted and supported by SpIRE in Dublin. 3 other books and a CD, about spirituality studies, by spirituality graduates who are also members of the SpIRE board, were launched.

The conference was a truly historic event in the field of spirituality studies in higher education and the professions in Ireland and beyond.

Listen to the podcast interview with Bernadette and Michael about this  ground-breaking event in Ireland by clicking on
https://www.jesuit.ie/…/f…/spirituality-and-the-professions/

Conference Programme

Conference Chair: Prof Bernadette Flanagan (Spirituality Institute for Research and Education, European Institute for Spirituality in Economics and Society, and Waterford Institute of Technology)

8.20      Transport to WIT departs from Tower Hotel, Main Entrance

Day 1 (Thursday, 16 MAY)

9:00 – 9:30 Registration & Coffee – Main Atrium, Cork Road Campus

9.30 – 9.50 Opening & Welcome – Auditorium

Richard Hayes, Vice-President for Strategy, Waterford Institute of Technology; Laszlo Zsolnai, President, European SPES Institute; Michael O’Sullivan, Director, Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE)

9.50 – 10.00  Spirit Moment: Phil Brennan, Waterford Camino

10.00 – 11.30  Plenary Session – Chair: Bernadette Flanagan

Ralph W. Hood, Jr. (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA): Mysticism and the Relationship between Religion and Spirituality

Luk Bouckaert (KU Leuven, Belgium): From Professional Ethics to a Professional Search for Meaning

11.30 – 12.00   Coffee Break – Atrium

12.00 – 12.45  Plenary Session – Chair: Luk Bouckaert – Auditorium

David Coghlan (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland): Developing a Spirituality of Scholarship: A First Person Methodological Approach

12.45 – 14.00   Lunch – Gallery Cafe

13.25-13.55 Optional lunch-time talk: Gherardo Girardi (St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK); Mara Del Baldo (University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Italy); Knut J. Ims (Norwegian School of Economics Bergen, Norway): The University of the Common Good – F26 Business School

14.00 – 15.30  Parallel Sessions 

Session (A)  Chair: Michael Howlett – F26 Business School

Elizabeth McCrory (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland): Contemplative Practices to Foster Well-being and Wisdom in the Caring Professions

Leonard McMahon (Graduate Theology Union, Berkeley, USA): Michel Foucault’s Concept of Parrhesia (truth-telling) as Spiritual Practice

Theresa Galan-Bruce (Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, USA): Spirituality: The Missing Link in Social Work Practice and Pedagogy

Session (B)  Chair: Sabine Denis – F27 Business School

Gavin Murphy (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland): The Psycho-Spiritual Inspiration of Three Saints

Charles Oham (University of Greenwich, London): The Impact of Spiritual Capital on Social Entrepreneurs

Timothy Daniel (Organisation Development Consultant, Albuquerque, USA): Addressing Spiritual Homesickness among Leaders in the Corporate World

15.30 –  16.00   Break – Atrium

16.00 –  17.00    Plenary Session – Chair: Paul Clogher; Auditorium

Stuart Walker (Lancaster University): Spirituality and Design: Creating a meaningful material culture through progressive design praxis

Kevin Jackson (Fordham University, New York, USA): Music as a Profession of Contemplative Journey: Castles, Bridges, and Butterflies

17.00 – 18.00

General Assembly of European SPES with a musical presentation by Waterford Peace Choir (all participants of the conference are invited) – Auditorium

19.30  Conference Banquet : Tower Hotel, The Mall, Waterford, X91 VXE0

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Day 2 (Friday)

9:10 – 9:30  Spirit Moment: Phil Brennan, Waterford Camino; Auditorium

9.30 – 10.15  Plenary Session – Chair: Knut J Ims

Celeste Snowber (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada): Body, Spirituality and Passion: Embodied Ways of Inquiry in Vocation

10.15 –  10.45  Coffee Break

10.45 –  12.30 Plenary Session – Chair: Eleanor O’Higgins; Auditorium

Michael O’Sullivan (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland; WIT; and SPES): Spiritual Capital: Spirituality for Social and Planetary Well-being

Jose Luis Fernández (Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain): Spirituality as the Foundation of the Ethics of Professions: Anthropological roots of a successful academic experience UNIJES – Jesuit Universities in Spain (1993-2018)

Erik C. Carter (Loma Linda University, USA): Pedagogy and Pilgrimage: Teaching Spirituality to Occupational Therapists-in-Training

12.30 –  13.40   Lunch – Gallery Cafe

13.45 –  14.45  Parallel Sessions

Session (A)  Chair: Mara Del Baldo – F26 Business School

Rossano Zas Friz De Col (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy): The Anthropological Foundation of Spirituality in the Professions

Knut J. Ims (Norwegian School of Economics Bergen, Norway): A Conceptual Model of Calling, Defining Moments & Life Projects with Relevance for Education of Business & Entrepreneurial Leaders. The Norwegian Serial-Entrepreneur Hans Nielsen Hauge Used as Exemplary Case.

Session (B)  Chair: Philip Cremin – F27 Business School

Kenneth R. Morefield (Campbell University, North Carolina, USA): Spirituality and Movies

Paul Clogher (Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland): Paul Schrader and a Spiritual Cinema

14.45  –  15.00   Break

15.00 – 16.30  Parallel Sessions

Session (A)  Chair: Anne Marie Dixon – F26 Business School

Noelia Molina (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland) Motherhood and Spiritual Awakening

András Ócsai (Corvinus University of Budapest): Ecologically Conscious Businesses – Spiritually-Grounded Working Models in Different Professions

Mara Del Baldo (University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Italy): Is There a Space for Spirituality in the Accounting Profession?

Session (B)  Chair: Noel Keating – F27 Business School

Bernadette Masterson (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland): Sickness, Stigma and Spiritual Awakening: A Transpersonal Paradigm for Women with Contested Illnesses

Petra Sebek (SpIRE – Spirituality Institute, Ireland): Spirituality in the Selfie Culture of Instagram

Manas K Chatterji (School of Management, Binghamton University – State University of New York): Peace, Economics, and Peace Science

16.30 – 17.00 Reception – Atrium

17.00-18.00 Book Launches and CD launch – Chair: Suzanne Denieffe (Head of School of Humanities, WIT); Auditorium

The Routledege International Handbook of Spirituality in Society & the Professions, Edited by Laszlo Zsolani & Bernadette Flanagan. Launcher: Michael Comyn (RTE – Radio Telefis Eireann)

Sickness, Stigma and Spiritual Awakening: A Transpersonal Paradigm for Women with Contested Illnesses (Peter Lang Publishing)  by Bernadette Masterson, SpIRE.  Launcher: David Smith (RCSI – Royal College of Surgeons Ireland)

Spirituality in the Selfie Culture of Instagram (Wipf & Stock Publishing) by Petra Sebek, SpIRE. Launcher: Pat Coyle (JCC – Jesuit Communications Centre)

Spirituality, Culture, and Motherhood (Routledge) by Noelia Molina, SpIRE.  Launcher: Vivienne Brady (TCD – Trinity College Dublin)

Meditation with Children CD Created by Alana Levandoski in conjunction with Noel Keating, SpIRE. Launcher: Michael O’Sullivan (SpIRE, WIT, & SPES)

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Day 3  (Saturday) 

9.00 – 11.00  Plenary Panel Session – Chair: Michael O’Sullivan; Auditorium

Elizabeth Allison (California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco): Spirituality and Ecology

Larry Culliford (BASS & Co-founder of Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group, UK) WISDOM: What Is It? Why We Need It & How to Get It

Phil Daughtry, Kirsten Macaitis (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tabor, Adelaide, Australia): “Priests are Psychologists – Come Back to Church!” – Observations of dreaming and awakening as therapeutic phenomena in reflective educational practice

Sabine Denis (SPES Forum, Leuven, Belgium): Spirituality and Activism: The Times Are Urgent, Let’s Slow Down

11.00  Closing & Farewell – Laszlo Zsolnai and Bernadette Flanagan

(Optional) Pilgrimage Experience in Waterford for those who booked beforehand

Bookings: https://www.eventbrite.ie

It is essential to book and prepay by the beginning of May

For any queries, please contact mosullivan@spiritualityinstitute.ie or bflanagan@spiritualityinstitute.ie